Decode (Luke Series, #7) (4 page)

“The tearoom is near the
lobby, isn’t it?” I ask Violet and she smiles at me over her
shoulder.

“Yes, tea is served in
the foyer. I studied the hotel website this morning,” she replies,
slowing down so she can walk next to me. “One of the bellman
offered to give me a tour of the facilities, but I didn’t think
that was appropriate.”

“Appropriate?”

“I just meant… because
I’m here as your employee. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to
spend my time… elsewhere.”

I don’t bother responding
to this. It seems that any amount of interaction with Violet lately
only seems to encourage this juvenile flirtation. I’m beginning to
think that asking her to help plan a surprise second honeymoon for
Brina and me was a huge mistake. Maybe
hiring
her
was my first mistake.

When we arrive at the
foyer, I set Lucas down, but he holds fast to my hand. The hostess
doesn’t bother looking for our reservation. Though we do have a
reservation, I’m the kind of man who doesn’t need one, and I’ve
stayed in the hotel enough times for the staff to know that.

They seat us at a table
and my nerves are on edge as I lift Lucas into the chair on my left
and Violet takes the seat on my right so we’re all seated on the
same side of the table. Ian sits across from Lucas where he will
pretend to be a friend having lunch with us, but his presence
doesn’t make me any less anxious. Brina knows how to hail a cab and
find her way back to the hotel, but I don’t feel comfortable being
here without her and Rhianne knowing that Rhianne is the only
reason we made this reservation.

“I’m sure they’ll be here
soon. Brina knows how much this means to Rhi,” Violet says.

She’s the only one who
calls Rhianne by the nickname “Rhi.” Though Rhianne likes it, I’m
beginning to understand why it bothers Brina so much.

“Please refer to her as
Mrs. Maxwell.”

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

She shifts in her seat
and I get the feeling she’s trying to discreetly move her chair
closer to mine.

“Daddy, I ran after the
birds in the park,” Lucas says as he clumsily pushes his hair away
from his pink cheeks.

“Yes, I heard. Next time,
I want you to stay close to Mommy and Rhianne. If you want to chase
the birds, or play on the toys, you ask Mommy. Understood?”

His face is serious as he
nods. I wrap my arm around his shoulders and pull him in for a hug
as I kiss the top of his head. He uses his five-year-old arms to
push me away and I laugh as I let him go.

“You’re growing up too
fast, little man.”

“I’m not a
man!
” he insists.

This shouted declaration
makes me think of the day my father kicked me out when I was
seventeen. I wasn’t a man, but I had to become one very quickly. My
father’s last words to me, while lying in the hospital bed, were,
“Don’t make the same mistakes I made.”

I would never cheat on
Brina, but I’m beginning to think that Violet took this job in
hopes that I’m the type of man who would hurt my family like that.
I am not my father and I think that’s the best lesson my father
ever taught me.

“Can we talk about the
tickets?” Violet whispers.

I glance down at Lucas
and he looks up at me with a smile in his eyes. “Not here,” I
reply.

Lucas is not the type to
keep quiet and I don’t want him ruining the surprise for Brina.

“But I need to call the
theater to arrange for—”

“I said, not here.”

“Just tell me whether you
want dress circle or stall seating.”

“Daddy, I want to see The
Lion King,” Lucas declares as a waiter arrives to fill our glasses
with water and Laurent Perrier champagne.

“Lucas, we will see Simba
later.”

“I just need to know what
show you want to see and which seats you want so they can shuffle
the seating arrangements,” Violet insists.

She’s not going to give
up. I lean in to whisper the name of the show and the seating level
in her ear, so Lucas can’t hear and spill the beans to Brina. She
giggles and reaches for her ear as if my whispering has tickled
her. I quickly pull back so she doesn’t get the wrong idea.

She glances over her
shoulder then smiles shyly. “Thank you.”

Chapter Eight

After an excruciating
twelve-minute delay on Brooke Street due to protests at the U.S.
Embassy, we arrive at the main entrance to Claridge’s. I don’t
bother asking the cabbie to drive us around the corner to the
private entrance. I just want out of this cab. I tip him heftily
and pray that the doorman recognizes Rhianne and me as I race
across the sidewalk toward the hotel entrance. The smile and the
tiny nod the doorman casts in my direction as he opens the door
fill me with relief.

I race across the black
and white checkered tile in the lobby toward the foyer. I’m ten
minutes late for our three o’clock reservation, but that’s amazing
considering everything we had to go through to get here. I approach
the hostess and she immediately recognizes me.

She nods toward the
dining area. “Mr. Maxwell is waiting.”

I’ve only taken a few
steps into the foyer when I spot Lucas, Luke, and Violet at a table
forty feet away. My heart stops.

Luke is leaning toward
Violet, his lips on her ear.

My hold on Rhianne
weakens as my muscles slacken. I set her down on the floor and she
immediately reaches toward me to pick her up again. But all I can
do is watch as Luke pulls his lips away from Violet’s ear. She
glances at me over her shoulder then smiles at Luke with such
admiration as she giggles—a tinkling sound that vibrates inside my
chest like a cruel, throbbing alarm.

“Mommy,” Rhianne whines.
“Mommy, pleeeease!”

Tearing my gaze away from
Luke, I scoop up my baby girl. I squeeze her in my arms and she
grunts from the force of my hug.

“Mommy!” she
complains.

“Sorry, baby,” I whisper
as I loosen my grip.

I follow the hostess
toward the table; my heart pounding harder with each step I take. I
feel as if I’m having an out-of-body experience. This is happening
to someone else. My husband would never cheat on me. This is
someone else’s life.

We reach the table and
the hostess with the perfectly coifed bun motions to the seat next
to Ian. Luke immediately stands up. Is that a guilty look on his
face? No. Oh, God no.

“Baby,” he breathes, and
the very sound of his voice makes me sick.

My vision is blurry, the
sound of blood rushing through my ears as I clumsily help Rhianne
into a chair next to Ian. “I’m going to go work out. I… I have to
go.”

I can’t confront Luke or
Violet here. Not in front of Rhianne and Lucas.

“Brina,” Luke calls to me
as I make my way toward the lobby with haste.

His voice fades as the
sound of my heartbeat thrumming in my ears grows too loud to
disregard.
The cries of the heart are too loud
to ignore.
I read this somewhere. I didn’t realize until now
that this is not a metaphor.

Chapter Nine

By the time I climb the
two flights of stairs to the first floor and arrive at the lift,
Brina is gone. I dart down the hallway to the emergency stairwell.
There’s a chance I may get to the penthouse level before the
115-year-old elevator.

Taking the stairs three
at a time, I think of what Brina must have seen in the foyer. I
whispered the name of the show in Violet’s ear so Lucas wouldn’t
blurt it out to Brina before tomorrow night’s surprise. I already
chartered a boat and hired a crew to host a romantic midnight
dinner as we sail down the Thames. Then we were going to board the
jet and take a four-day second honeymoon to Paris. I’ve been
fantasizing about all the ways I’m going to have her: on the boat,
on the jet, in Paris with the Eifel Tower framed in the window.
It’s such a fucking cliché that the very act of keeping this trip a
secret would be the very reason it failed. I should have planned
this honeymoon with Brina from the beginning.

Reaching the penthouse
level, I burst through the stairwell door into the corridor. Racing
across the plush blue carpet, I stop at the door to the
penthouse.

“Don’t open it,” I order
the security guard as he reaches for the door handle. “Give me a
moment.”

I take a few deep breaths
to slow my heart rate after that epic race through the stairwell.
My marriage may very well depend on the next few minutes inside
this hotel suite. I need to approach Brina calmly.

I don’t realize how true
this is until the guard opens the door for me and I glimpse Brina
through the open glass doors leading out onto the rooftop terrace.
A soft breeze sweeps her hair up as she leans over the steel
railing.

Chapter Ten

I close my eyes, my
grip on the warm steel rail loosens as I attempt to get closer to
the breeze. I can breathe out here.

My whole body pulses with
the aching memory of what I just saw. The memory plays over and
over in my mind, torturing me. It’s not even the act of Luke
pressing his lips to Violet’s ear that is most shocking and
hurtful. It’s the fact that he did it out in the open, in front of
Lucas—in front of everyone! Making a fool of me and a mockery of
our marriage.

All this time, all my
suspicions about Violet were not as silly as I tried to convince
myself they were. Maybe this was their way of telling me. They knew
I wouldn’t cause a scene at one of the most dignified afternoon
teas in all of London. They’re probably down there enjoying their
champagne and tea without me.

Maybe Violet is pouring
Rhianne some tea while Rhianne giggles. Maybe Luke is laughing
along or maybe he has his hand on Violet’s thigh as he leans in to
whisper something naughty in her ear.

“Brina.”

My muscles tense
painfully at the sound of his voice and my torso falls forward as I
lose my grip on the railing. In the span of half a second, my feet
lift away from the slate tiled terrace and my body tips forward to
the point of no return. I’m going to die. Just like my brother
did.

Chapter Eleven

My first instinct, as I
fly toward her, is to grab a chunk of her T-shirt in my hand to
slow her momentum. Then I wrap my other arm around her chest and
pull her backwards. I lock my arms around her chest and waist as I
pull her tight against my chest.

“What are you doing?!” I
demand.

“You scared the hell out
of me and I slipped! Let go of me!”

She attempts to wriggle
out of my grasp, but I only tighten my arms around her.

“Get off me! You
asshole!”

“Brina, stop! You don’t
know what you saw!”

“Don’t touch me! I can’t
believe you would do this to me!”

“Stop fighting and
listen!

“You’re
hurting
me!”

I let go immediately and
she turns around and slaps me. “Fuck!” I growl as I rub my face to
lessen the sting.

“How does it feel?!” she
shrieks as she storms off into the living room. “I knew you were
doing something behind my back, but
this!”

Following after her, I’m
struck by how ridiculous I’ve been to assume that I could keep
anything from Brina. She came into my life six years ago as a
professional spy and she’s always known me better than any woman
ever has. What was I thinking?

“Baby, what you saw in
there was not what you think you saw.”

“Don’t call me baby or I
may vomit.”

She stops for a moment at
the bedroom door and appears to swallow her disgust. I seize the
opportunity to grab her hand to keep her from entering the
bedroom.

“Don’t touch me!”

“Brina, you are making a
huge mistake here. What you saw downstairs was Violet and me
discussing our plans for tomorrow.”

She dry heaves again.
“Don’t say her name. And, for God’s sake, don’t tell me about your
plans with her!”

“Not my plans with
her!
My plans with
you!”
I shout, unable to keep my cool any longer.
“We’ve been planning a surprise for
you!”

She closes her eyes and
draws in a stuttered breath. “What surprise?”

“The surprise you didn’t
know about because we were trying to keep it a fucking surprise. A
second honeymoon.”

I’m breathing heavily
with all the fear and adrenaline coursing through me. I can’t lose
Brina. I won’t fucking survive.

“Baby, please listen to
me.” I place my fingers under her chin and slowly tilt her face up.
“I’ve been planning this second honeymoon for us for over a month.
I just wanted to be alone with you. With no kids. No nannies. No
fucking security guards. Just you and me. Please tell me you
believe me.” Her eyes are locked on my mouth, as if she can discern
the truth there. I tilt her face up a little more. “Look me in the
eye. I would never, ever betray you. You’re not just my wife.
You’re the air I breathe and the fucking blood in my veins. I can’t
live without you. Do you understand me?”

She nods and I let out a
huge sigh as I wipe the tears from the outer corners of her eyes. I
take her face in my hands and press my lips to her forehead,
drawing in a breath to take in the scent of her shampoo.

“I hate you for putting
me through this,” she says as she pushes me away. “I’ve been going
crazy for weeks thinking you were cheating on me.”

She enters the bedroom
and I follow closely behind her.

“I was wrong to plan this
without you. I just wanted you to be surprised. I wanted this
honeymoon to begin the way we did six years ago, with a secret that
brought us closer together. I never imagined Violet would go to
these lengths for a stupid crush. She’s fired. I don’t give a fuck
if she’s Jerry’s niece. That girl is dead to me.”